Either/OR Book Meme
Jun. 24th, 2012 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatClassic Novel either/or meme - Frustrated English Lit Majors need only apply...
1. Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights?
Jane Eyre. I can't stand Kathy. Jane was more interesting as was Mr. Rochester. Also less spoiled and far more long-suffering. And Heathcliff got on my nerves.
2. Henry James or Edith Wharton
Wharton. She was less flowery and easier to read. Also had less whiny characters. Ethan From and Age of Innocence I remember vividly. I couldn't make it through James' Turn of the Screw. Rather liked the play version though.
3. Fitzgerald or Hemingway
Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby haunts me. So many have tried to do the same thing and failed miserably. Hemingway...I rather liked Old Man and the Sea, but Sun Also Rises bored me.
Too sparse. Too journalistic. While Fitzgerald's words shone.
4. The Girl with Dragoon Tattoo vs. Smila's Sense of Snow
Smila by a landslide. It's a more delicate work, drifting back and forth in time and place and narrative. And the lead character felt more real and got deeper under my skin. Girl just left a bad taste in my mouth.
5. Garcia Marquez vs. James Joyce...vs. William Faulkner
The stream of consciousness writers of a bygone age. Marquez wrote the most beautifully, but both Marquez and Faulkner copied Joyce, which William S. Burroughs did as well.
I'd pick Joyce, whose Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedelus live on...and on and on inside my head, while the others have long since faded.
6. Dickens or Shakespeare...
Shakespeare because he has a better sense of humor.
7. Shakespeare or Christopher Marlow?
See #6
8. Mark Twain or Jonathan Swift - the satirists.
Mark Twain - he's less bitter and liked people. I'm not sure Swift liked anyone.
9. Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie
Prefer Conan Doyle for Sherlock over Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
Sherlock Holmes was just a character that defied description. And sticks in the teeth, the craw and the blood. While Poirot and Miss Marple...felt similar to many that came before and after...such as Edgar Allen Poe's detective in the Murders of Rue Morgue and
Ruth Rendel and PD James. But no writers have created a character like Sherlock Holmes.
10. Stendal vs. Victor Hugo
I like Stendal. I don't know why exactly. Not as long? More twisty and wicked? Julian is not nice in the Red and The Black, while Jean Val JEan is.
11. Victoria Woolfe Vs. Kate Chopin.
Preferred Kate Chopin, less racist and self-absorbed.
12. Dorothy Parker vs. Slyvia Plath
Dorothy Parker had a sense of humor. Probably why she lived.
13. TS Eliot vs. WB Yeats
Prefer Eliot...who was harder to figure out. Although Yeates has his moments.
14. Percy Blyshe Shelley vs. Byron
Shelley - for Ozymandias...although Bryon's Don Juan is hilarious.
15. Arturo Perez Reverte vs. Alexander Dumas
Reverte...for Flanders Panel and Seville Communion, I confess to never making it through Dumas.
16. Dorothy Dunnette vs. Phillipa Gregory
No contest. Dunnett. Gregory annoys me, too romantic.
17. John Jakes vs. Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy - more poetic and more interesting.
18. Richardson's Clarissa vs. Les Liasons Dangereux
Les Liasons - again, sense of humor.
19. John Steinbeck vs. Upton Sinclair.
John Steinbeck - for the beauty of the prose, the sense of humor, and the hope.
20. Checkov vs. Ibsen
Checkov, who I can't spell, but at least I remember his plays.
21. Jane Austen vs. Louisa May Alcott
Austen - again, sense of humor.
22. Ayn Rand vs. George Orwell
Orwell - better at both satire and allegory. Rand preached too much. Both satirized and critiqued communism, but Orwell did it better with a more...deft and subtle hand.
Granted Rand was Russian and from Stalinist Russia, while Orwell was British...that may have had an effect.
23. Ian Fleming vs. John Le Carre...or rather Bond vs. Smiley.
Le Carre for his labrynthine prose...although I've admittedly read more Ian Fleming.
24. The Brother's Grimm vs. Hans Christian Anderson
Hans Christian Anderson - tougher female heroines with more choices. Hello, Snow Queen vs. Snow White? Which would you pick? A woman who must be saved by her prince, or a prince who must be saved by a woman? Very similar. Evil Queen in both. Character captured and kept in ice. Saved by True Love. Just a gender switch on the whole damsel bit.
25. Margaret Atwood vs. AS Byatt...
Byatt...just because Posession was far more interesting and satisfying than Handmaid's Tale or Robber Bridgegroom.
27. Adoulus Huxely vs. Alfred Bester.
I admittedly liked Demolished Man better than Brave New World. Although perhaps Burgess vs. Bester is a better comparison?
28. Dostevesky vs. Tolstoy
Dostevesky...again wicked sense of humor.
29. Euripides vs. Homer
Euripides...not into Epics. Much perfer Bacchai. Although Euripides vs. Sophocles? Sophocles wins hands down for Oedipus Rex.
30. Luigi Pirandella vs. Gabriel Garcia Lorca
Six Characters in Search of an Author...wins over the House of Bernada Alba...again, he has a sense of humor and I like existentialism better over fatalism.
31. Donna Tartt vs. Pamela Dean vs. Elizabeth Hand vs. Peter Straub vs. Tom Tyron
(All these people wrote more or less the same story about a bunch of college kids or people who get in over their heads regarding a religious rite in the countryside)
Tartt's Secret History is the best and most haunting, with Tom Tyron's out of print Harvest Home a close second. Straub's Dark Matter is silly in comparison to both.
Hand's even sillier. And Dean's Tam Lin feels like Nancy Drew meets Darby O'Gill and the Little People or a weak version of Gaberial Kaverial Kay's Wandering Gyre. Actually should pit Dean against Wandering Gyre, they are more similar and Gyre was more satisfying and less Peyton Place.
32. George RR Martin vs. Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony
George RR Martin for thinking outside the box and taking fantasy outside of the Tolkien and CS Lewis models.
33. Ken Follett vs. Robert Ludlum
Follett - tighter suspense and more interesting female characters. Eye of Rebecca is tauter than Borne Identity.
34. Robert Heinlein vs. Issac Asimov
Heinlein - again for the sense of humor.
35. JK Rowlings vs. Suzanne Collins?
Rowlings...for her sense of humor if nothing else.
36. PG Wodehouse vs. Mark Twain
No idea. I think I liked Wodehouse better, but Twain haunts me and sticks in my teeth.
38. Mary Stewart or Victoria Holt
Mary Stewart for The Crystal Cave and the Moonspinners...and Touch not the Cat
39. Rosemary Rodgers vs. Kathleen Woodwiss
Rodgers for her mystery/romance genre blend The Wildest Heart. And tough women.
40. Anne McCaffrey vs. Andre Norton
McCaffrey for the dragons and ships that sing
42. Connie Willis vs. Octavia Butler on Time Travel
Octavia Butler's Kindred...for an unrelentingly realistic portrayal of slavery that outdid even Toni Morrison. And for depicting the true sacrifice of time travel.
1. Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights?
Jane Eyre. I can't stand Kathy. Jane was more interesting as was Mr. Rochester. Also less spoiled and far more long-suffering. And Heathcliff got on my nerves.
2. Henry James or Edith Wharton
Wharton. She was less flowery and easier to read. Also had less whiny characters. Ethan From and Age of Innocence I remember vividly. I couldn't make it through James' Turn of the Screw. Rather liked the play version though.
3. Fitzgerald or Hemingway
Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby haunts me. So many have tried to do the same thing and failed miserably. Hemingway...I rather liked Old Man and the Sea, but Sun Also Rises bored me.
Too sparse. Too journalistic. While Fitzgerald's words shone.
4. The Girl with Dragoon Tattoo vs. Smila's Sense of Snow
Smila by a landslide. It's a more delicate work, drifting back and forth in time and place and narrative. And the lead character felt more real and got deeper under my skin. Girl just left a bad taste in my mouth.
5. Garcia Marquez vs. James Joyce...vs. William Faulkner
The stream of consciousness writers of a bygone age. Marquez wrote the most beautifully, but both Marquez and Faulkner copied Joyce, which William S. Burroughs did as well.
I'd pick Joyce, whose Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedelus live on...and on and on inside my head, while the others have long since faded.
6. Dickens or Shakespeare...
Shakespeare because he has a better sense of humor.
7. Shakespeare or Christopher Marlow?
See #6
8. Mark Twain or Jonathan Swift - the satirists.
Mark Twain - he's less bitter and liked people. I'm not sure Swift liked anyone.
9. Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie
Prefer Conan Doyle for Sherlock over Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
Sherlock Holmes was just a character that defied description. And sticks in the teeth, the craw and the blood. While Poirot and Miss Marple...felt similar to many that came before and after...such as Edgar Allen Poe's detective in the Murders of Rue Morgue and
Ruth Rendel and PD James. But no writers have created a character like Sherlock Holmes.
10. Stendal vs. Victor Hugo
I like Stendal. I don't know why exactly. Not as long? More twisty and wicked? Julian is not nice in the Red and The Black, while Jean Val JEan is.
11. Victoria Woolfe Vs. Kate Chopin.
Preferred Kate Chopin, less racist and self-absorbed.
12. Dorothy Parker vs. Slyvia Plath
Dorothy Parker had a sense of humor. Probably why she lived.
13. TS Eliot vs. WB Yeats
Prefer Eliot...who was harder to figure out. Although Yeates has his moments.
14. Percy Blyshe Shelley vs. Byron
Shelley - for Ozymandias...although Bryon's Don Juan is hilarious.
15. Arturo Perez Reverte vs. Alexander Dumas
Reverte...for Flanders Panel and Seville Communion, I confess to never making it through Dumas.
16. Dorothy Dunnette vs. Phillipa Gregory
No contest. Dunnett. Gregory annoys me, too romantic.
17. John Jakes vs. Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy - more poetic and more interesting.
18. Richardson's Clarissa vs. Les Liasons Dangereux
Les Liasons - again, sense of humor.
19. John Steinbeck vs. Upton Sinclair.
John Steinbeck - for the beauty of the prose, the sense of humor, and the hope.
20. Checkov vs. Ibsen
Checkov, who I can't spell, but at least I remember his plays.
21. Jane Austen vs. Louisa May Alcott
Austen - again, sense of humor.
22. Ayn Rand vs. George Orwell
Orwell - better at both satire and allegory. Rand preached too much. Both satirized and critiqued communism, but Orwell did it better with a more...deft and subtle hand.
Granted Rand was Russian and from Stalinist Russia, while Orwell was British...that may have had an effect.
23. Ian Fleming vs. John Le Carre...or rather Bond vs. Smiley.
Le Carre for his labrynthine prose...although I've admittedly read more Ian Fleming.
24. The Brother's Grimm vs. Hans Christian Anderson
Hans Christian Anderson - tougher female heroines with more choices. Hello, Snow Queen vs. Snow White? Which would you pick? A woman who must be saved by her prince, or a prince who must be saved by a woman? Very similar. Evil Queen in both. Character captured and kept in ice. Saved by True Love. Just a gender switch on the whole damsel bit.
25. Margaret Atwood vs. AS Byatt...
Byatt...just because Posession was far more interesting and satisfying than Handmaid's Tale or Robber Bridgegroom.
27. Adoulus Huxely vs. Alfred Bester.
I admittedly liked Demolished Man better than Brave New World. Although perhaps Burgess vs. Bester is a better comparison?
28. Dostevesky vs. Tolstoy
Dostevesky...again wicked sense of humor.
29. Euripides vs. Homer
Euripides...not into Epics. Much perfer Bacchai. Although Euripides vs. Sophocles? Sophocles wins hands down for Oedipus Rex.
30. Luigi Pirandella vs. Gabriel Garcia Lorca
Six Characters in Search of an Author...wins over the House of Bernada Alba...again, he has a sense of humor and I like existentialism better over fatalism.
31. Donna Tartt vs. Pamela Dean vs. Elizabeth Hand vs. Peter Straub vs. Tom Tyron
(All these people wrote more or less the same story about a bunch of college kids or people who get in over their heads regarding a religious rite in the countryside)
Tartt's Secret History is the best and most haunting, with Tom Tyron's out of print Harvest Home a close second. Straub's Dark Matter is silly in comparison to both.
Hand's even sillier. And Dean's Tam Lin feels like Nancy Drew meets Darby O'Gill and the Little People or a weak version of Gaberial Kaverial Kay's Wandering Gyre. Actually should pit Dean against Wandering Gyre, they are more similar and Gyre was more satisfying and less Peyton Place.
32. George RR Martin vs. Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony
George RR Martin for thinking outside the box and taking fantasy outside of the Tolkien and CS Lewis models.
33. Ken Follett vs. Robert Ludlum
Follett - tighter suspense and more interesting female characters. Eye of Rebecca is tauter than Borne Identity.
34. Robert Heinlein vs. Issac Asimov
Heinlein - again for the sense of humor.
35. JK Rowlings vs. Suzanne Collins?
Rowlings...for her sense of humor if nothing else.
36. PG Wodehouse vs. Mark Twain
No idea. I think I liked Wodehouse better, but Twain haunts me and sticks in my teeth.
38. Mary Stewart or Victoria Holt
Mary Stewart for The Crystal Cave and the Moonspinners...and Touch not the Cat
39. Rosemary Rodgers vs. Kathleen Woodwiss
Rodgers for her mystery/romance genre blend The Wildest Heart. And tough women.
40. Anne McCaffrey vs. Andre Norton
McCaffrey for the dragons and ships that sing
42. Connie Willis vs. Octavia Butler on Time Travel
Octavia Butler's Kindred...for an unrelentingly realistic portrayal of slavery that outdid even Toni Morrison. And for depicting the true sacrifice of time travel.
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Date: 2012-06-25 09:12 pm (UTC)